29 August 2020

Fridjohn - Winemakers expunge the sins of the fathers as Pinotage evolve

Michael Fridjhon is Director of the Wine Judging Academy of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business, is an author, co-author or contributor to more than 40 books including the Oxford Companion to Wine, the Global Wine Encyclopaedia and the John Platter Wine Guide. 


He takes a look at Pinotage in his article Winemakers expunge the sins of the fathers as Pinotage evolves


He makes an interesting point that Cabernet Sauvignon would not have been planted in South Africa's first vineyards. Jancis Robinson' Wine Grapes found the first written mention of Cabernet Sauvignon was a hundred years later, in the mid 1700s. 


But I don't agree that "For many purists, it was doomed to be a mongrel – until DNA testing in the past couple of decades proved that most so-called noble varieties were also cross-breeds. Cabernet Sauvignon, for example, is a natural crossing of Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc..."


 I don't think anyone doubted that every grape variety is a cross of two others,  just as all people have two parents. It wasn't until DNA testing that a variety's actual parentage could be established. 

No comments:

Post a Comment